Help with Fedora Core 2 internet access

I am a newbie to linux. Just partitioned my drive and installed
Fedora Core 2 on a 10G partition. The partition and install went
very smoothly and I am exploring linux but am stuck trying to get
internet access.

I'm on a Dell D600 laptop with a Centrino chip (wireless) trying
to access a WLAN in my home.

When I looked at what was running in XP for the internet
connection it was:

Intel Pro / Wireless LAN 2100 3A mini pci adapter

When I go to set up a wireless internet connection in linux, this
is not listed in the adapters list.

Is this wireless card compatible with Fedora Core 2 or do I need
to download a driver or adapter for it? If so, how and where?

Thanks!

AB

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Re: Help with Fedora Core 2 internet access

At 06:29 PM 8/21/2004 -0700, Adam Boettiger wrote:
>I am a newbie to linux. Just partitioned my drive and installed Fedora
>Core 2 on a 10G partition. The partition and install went very smoothly
>and I am exploring linux but am stuck trying to get internet access.
>
>I'm on a Dell D600 laptop with a Centrino chip (wireless) trying to access
>a WLAN in my home.
>
>When I looked at what was running in XP for the internet connection it was:
>
>Intel Pro / Wireless LAN 2100 3A mini pci adapter
>
>When I go to set up a wireless internet connection in linux, this is not
>listed in the adapters list.
>
>Is this wireless card compatible with Fedora Core 2 or do I need to
>download a driver or adapter for it? If so, how and where?

You may want to wait until Monday, to see if you get a better answer than I
can offer from someone who knows the specifics of Fedora and/or Dells.
Short of that, I can suggest you check two places (and a "bonus" third):

1. http://ipw2100.sourceforge.net/ is a development project to support the
shipset in your WiFi adapter. It has Intel's support. But it isn't offering
a "stable" driver yet, though.

2. http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/ is a project that offers a "wrapper"
program that lets the Linux kernel use the NDIS API to communicate with the
(Windows) drivers that WiFi vendors supply with their devices. This may
work for you.

3. The "bonus" place is a site the offers a commercial ($19.95) product to
support many WiFi chipsets under Linux. It claims to support your Intel.
The site is --
http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/?PHPSESSID=de48d169f509 b8dfd489242e22383fde

Hope this helps. Assuming you get it working, you might take a moment to
let us know what solution you ended up with.



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Re: Help with Fedora Core 2 internet access

On Sat, 21 Aug 2004, Adam Boettiger wrote:

> I am a newbie to linux. Just partitioned my drive and installed Fedora
> Core 2 on a 10G partition. The partition and install went very smoothly
> and I am exploring linux but am stuck trying to get internet access.
>
> I'm on a Dell D600 laptop with a Centrino chip (wireless) trying
> to access a WLAN in my home.
>
> When I looked at what was running in XP for the internet
> connection it was:
>
> Intel Pro / Wireless LAN 2100 3A mini pci adapter
>
> When I go to set up a wireless internet connection in linux, this
> is not listed in the adapters list.
>
> Is this wireless card compatible with Fedora Core 2 or do I need
> to download a driver or adapter for it? If so, how and where?

Wirless 'net access is a real weak point for Linux. If you get a wirless
card or computer with wireless and the Linux distribution you use it with
detects and sets it up, you're very lucky. Most folks probably end up
researching wirless cards and find out which ones they can expect to work
under Linux, then they go and buy it. But even this isn't a sure thing.
Apparently wireless NIC manufacturers frequently make key hardware changes
(e.g., use a different chipset) without notifying anyone or changing model
numbers. It's sort of a messy situation, and poor support is not entirely
the fault of Linux developers. I tried recently to get a wireless card
that would work under Linux and I was reduced to stopping in at stores,
grabbing a card, testing it to see if it would work, then returning it to
the store when it didn't. Several tries were unsuccessful. If I would
have persisted, or were I willing to spend more money, I could eventually
have gotten one that worked. I just set the project aside though, since
it wasn't an absolute necessity and I was more concerned with getting a
bargain. Anyway, were I in your shoes I would start with a Google search.
Search under the terms XP has given you for card identification. Then,
restrict the search by the term "Linux" and see what people are saying
about this card and Linux - if anything. The important thing will be
whether you can identify the chipset. I've never used Fedora, so I can't
tell you a thing about how it should be set up for wireless or what it
should/shouldn't do in terms of hardware autodetection. Likely a module
(maybe 2) will need to be loaded for the chipset - if they're available.
How to load modules on Fedora I can't say. Modules are sort of a Linux
equivalent to what drivers are under Windows, by the way. You've hit a
Linux rough spot with this one.

Good luck, James
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Re: Help with Fedora Core 2 internet access

James and Ray -

Thanks for the help.

I couldn't figure out how to install the linuxant.com solution,
although that looks like it would work.

In Google I narrowed it down to this but have no idea how to
install it or configure it.

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=47676 53&forum_id=38938

AB

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Re: Help with Fedora Core 2 internet access

Eh, I guess it's still in Alpha or Beta...
http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-May/msg06271 .html

So hmmm.

Do I now have to go out and buy a Fedora-friendly wireless card,
even though wireless comes preinstalled on the computer?

Aparently so. If so, is there a list or recommendations
somewhere for Fedora Core 2 friendly 802.11x cards and drivers?

Surely I am not the first person who has wanted to use linux on a
WLAN via cable modem access...

AB

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Re: Help with Fedora Core 2 internet access

Replying to both your messages together.

>At 10:12 PM 8/21/2004 -0700, Adam Boettiger wrote:
>James and Ray -
>
>Thanks for the help.
>
>I couldn't figure out how to install the linuxant.com solution, although
>that looks like it would work.

Did you look at the instructions on the following URL?

http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/wlan/install.php?PHPSES SID=c62f3bc5fc1f9c6e87f206b3c1967db5

"Method A" there offers specific (and, seemingly, very simple) instructions
for rpm-based distros, which I assume Fedora is. Certainly the Debian
instructions ("Method B") are crystal clear (I use Debian here, so can
judge DEbian procedures a bit more readily than Fedora procedures).

But from reading on at this URL, I note that you have to go on to install a
driver from the card vendor. This makes me think that linuxant's solution
offers less than meets the eye, and you might do as well, whihe saving
$19.95, to use the (free) ndis package at the Sourceforge site (which lists
a Fedora package).


>In Google I narrowed it down to this but have no idea how to install it or
>configure it.
>
>http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=4767 653&forum_id=38938

Not being a Fedora user, I cannot give you specific help on this. I can
tell you that apt-get is the standard Debian (not Fedora) package
installer, so unless RH has adapted it for use in Fedora, the suggested
procedure is non-standard for that distro (which I would expect to be rpm
based).

At 10:27 PM 8/21/2004 -0700, Adam Boettiger wrote:
>Eh, I guess it's still in Alpha or Beta...
>http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-May/msg0627 1.html
>
>So hmmm.
>
>Do I now have to go out and buy a Fedora-friendly wireless card, even
>though wireless comes preinstalled on the computer?

Did you look at the ndis package that I told you about (see my prior
message for the URL)? My son just set up a wireless-G LAN at his apartment
using it. He's still having a bit of trouble with it (involving some sort
of sensitivity to the timing of when he initializes the interface during
boot/init; I don't know the details), but basically it works.

>Aparently so. If so, is there a list or recommendations somewhere for
>Fedora Core 2 friendly 802.11x cards and drivers?

It would help if you replaced "x" with either "b" or "g". As far as I can
tell, there are very few 802.11g cards (chipsets) with native support at
this point, but a fair number of 802.11b cards (still only a few chipsets,
though).

If you are not finding the sort of list you want in the usual Fedora
support channels (and I infer from your other messages that you've been
diligent about looking there), then you'd do best to replace "Fedora Core 2
friendly" with the less demanding "Linux friendly" in your searching. By
that standard, one of the URLs I already provided has a big list of
cards/chipsets, along with information about which ones have been found to
work with various of the native-mode (not ndis) drivers that do exist.


>Surely I am not the first person who has wanted to use linux on a WLAN via
>cable modem access...

Hardly. I did it a couple of years ago, with a wireless-B card. At the
time, though, we were careful to get one of the (then, very few) cards with
native Linux support (via the wlan-ng package, which back then was pretty
much the only game in town). Since I gathered that you were loking for
wireless-G, not wireless-B, support, I didn't mention wlan-ng in my prior
message. But if you can make do with the slower speed of 802.11b, then you
might look at it (it's also at Sourceforge).






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Re: Help with Fedora Core 2 internet access - summary

I spent some additional time searching the Redhat Fedora list
archives and came up with about five posts from a thread back in
January that have the following specific recommendations for
Fedora-compatible wireless cards. Am summarizing them here in
case others have the same issue. I have not decided which I will
do or what I will use yet.

From the archives:

Linksys WPCII card ver 3 is compatible, ver 4 is NOT COMPATIBLE
* The newer ones are ver 4 and it says it on the box so you can
see if maybe a retail store has an older ver.

Netgear MA411 with Orinco driver - Compatible

Dell Ture Mobile 1150 - Compatible

Cisco Aironet 340 or 350 cards - Compatible

Alternative method:

D-Link DWL-610+ wireless bridge to PCI card

*** Disclaimer:

This summary is from the posts and recommendations of others, in
response to 802.11 Fedora-compatible cards and connectivity.
These are not personal recommendations. Exercise normal judgement.

HTH,

AB

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Re: Help with Fedora Core 2 internet access

On Sat, 21 Aug 2004, Adam Boettiger wrote:

> Eh, I guess it's still in Alpha or Beta...
> http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-May/msg06271 .html
>
> So hmmm.

The earlier sourceforge post you supplied a url for seemed to be a
module/driver that can be installed to a Fedora system using their package
management system (yum is one of them that works alot like Debian's
apt-get: you type the name of the prog you want to install using the
package manager's frontend - or from the cli - and it downloads and
installs the software plus dependencies). Looks like maybe there are 2
packages to install, judging from that post. I can just give a rough
outline of how that works, based on the assumption that it works similarly
to Debian's package management system (which I use). But that is not
going to do you any good if you can't get on the 'net and connect to a
package repository, now is it?

> Do I now have to go out and buy a Fedora-friendly wireless card,
> even though wireless comes preinstalled on the computer?

Be prepared for it coming down to that, yes. I'm no seasoned Linux
veteran (been using it full time for more or less hobbyist purposes for
the last 3 years or so), but getting wireless working has proved a real
challenge for me. Research on the 'net has indicated to me that it's
challenged those alot more adept than me as well. Like I said, if you're
new to Linux and install a distro and it just happens to have detected and
set up your wireless NIC, you are one of the blessed few. On the linuxant
solution Ray pointed to, I have the following to relate. I have a young
budding Linux guru friend who tried to get a modem driver/module from them
working and finally just gave up. It basically requires compiling a
module - not an easy thing to do indpendently of a complete kernel
recompile. I know others who are at about my level of inexpertise who
have tried this and failed as well. Prepare for headaches, or pray for
great luck. Wireless gurus onlist: I would be delighted for you to prove
me wrong on this - please do so at your liesure.

> Aparently so. If so, is there a list or recommendations
> somewhere for Fedora Core 2 friendly 802.11x cards and drivers?

The list Ray mentioned is the best around, so you should consult it to see
what might and might not be expected to work. I have formulated the
following rule to follow, should I ever try tackling wireless networking
again: break down and buy a Cisco Aironet. They're one of the most
expensive wireless cards you can get, but they are among the best
supported under Linux: I think the modules supporting them are already in
the Linux kernel.

> Surely I am not the first person who has wanted to use linux on a
> WLAN via cable modem access...

Certainly not the first. Only time will tell if you're among the
manically obsessive-compulsive few who actually get it to work. Or maybe
you'll be among those happier to part with your cash (by buying a new
card) than to go through the headaches of trying to make what you have
work. Or maybe you'll just ditch Linux in disgust: I've certainly been
tempted myself to do that. I happen to be more dusgusted at M$ than I
could ever be at Linux though (the BSD'ers' joke is true of me: I don't
use Linux because I love Unix, I use it because I hate M$).

Best of luck, James
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